


Missing Hours

by ItsaVikingThing



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-03
Updated: 2018-03-03
Packaged: 2019-03-26 14:28:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13859652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ItsaVikingThing/pseuds/ItsaVikingThing
Summary: Set in the hours Max missed after her photo jump in episode Five. One way it might have gone, when Chloe was waiting in her room with another Max.





	Missing Hours

Max shifts restlessly beside Chloe, close enough to touch and just out of reach. Her voice is soft, uncertain, ache-inducing. "What time is it?" 

They're sitting together on Chloe's bed, and if there aren't many other seating options available, it still feels like a suggestion, somehow. One they don't take, one they won't talk about. 

"Late Thursday," Chloe says, trying to sound cheerful.

She crosses her legs, rests her elbows on her knees, leans a little closer to Max. She drums her fingers soundlessly on the comforter, on the edge of Max's space. "You feeling sleepy?"

Max pulls her legs up to her chest, hugging her shins and resting her chin on her knees, staring ahead of her, side on to Chloe. Her Converse are sitting neatly beside Chloe's kicked off, tumbled boots. She's wearing white ankle socks, and Chloe can see a pale patch of skin below the hem of her jeans. 

Chloe's fingers itch, her brain itches. She wants to smoke, almost as much as she wants to touch Max.

Max says, "It must be after midnight. The Vortex Club party must be over. David...well. It's Friday, Chloe."

Chloe knows it is. "There's...still time. Right?"

And that's a dumb thing to say. There is always time, hanging heavy between them, wrapped in endless coils around the delicate bones and soft, slim fingers of Max's right hand. But for Max, for this Max, the future is measurable in mere hours.

Max sighs. "I don't think I want to sleep. You can, though..."

She doesn't move, doesn't look at Chloe directly. But even if Chloe doesn't understand most of what's happened this week, she understands Max. After five years apart, five years of growth and change, five years of sorrow and rage, it's taken less than five days to reach this point: Chloe's world is on this bed. 

For all the mistakes that Chloe's made, Max has ensured that Chloe hasn't had to pay the ultimate price, again and again, in defiance of the universe itself. In spite of the cost to Max herself. Or her...selves.

Chloe thinks about the space between them, and the mistakes she's made already tonight, and wonders if she might be able to avoid one here. Chloe's hand moves, crosses the barrier that neither of them imposed, but that they've both scrupulously maintained since Max's future self travelled back to warn Chloe. Since it became clear that this Max, these hours together, would be lost to the return of that future Max. 

This Max tucked into a ball beside Chloe lives in the shadow of impending erasure. Self-inflicted, but by another self, without consultation, without any prospect of appeal.

Chloe touches Max's ankle, her long fingers wrapping around Max's bare skin, finding warmth, kindling the obstructing space between them, burning it away, along with the last five years, the lost time they'll never recover, they'll never need to. They have what they need right here. Chloe's blood affirms that, rushing from her fingertips to the chambers of her heart, spreading through every part of her.

"I'm not leaving you again. Not for a single fucking second," Chloe promises.

Max turns her head, staring at Chloe with unreadable cobalt blue eyes. A slow, shy smile tugs at her lips. "What if I need to pee?"

Chloe grins. "I'll be a gentleman. I'll cover my eyes."

Max wrinkles her nose, but her smile only gains in confidence. 

"You're gross," she says, but her eyes say something else.

"Hella gross," Chloe agrees, her hand still wrapped around Max's ankle. "I blame you. You bring out the worst in me."

Max uncurls, just a little. Her hand, the one that she twists time around, that she holds Chloe's life in so carefully, more carefully than Chloe ever has, settles on Chloe's wrist. 

She says, "I'm better, you know. Because of you. I'm not...brave. You make me brave."

Chloe kinda wants to laugh, and kinda wants to scream, and kinda wants to tell Max how dumb she is, saying stupid, untrue shit like that. 

Instead she says, on a tongue grown clumsy at the unfamiliar taste of earnest truth, "Max...you're a fucking hero. I...I'm sorry for...everything I've put you through. You deserve better than...you deserve so much more..."

And Chloe isn't sure she's making sense, but Max smiles and her grip on Chloe's wrist tightens for a second. Chloe releases Max's ankle, turns her hand, twines their fingers together, marvelling at Max's skin touching hers. They stare at each other and the moment becomes heavy, but it's a warm and comforting weight, one Chloe would be okay shouldering for the rest of her life.

But all moments pass, and as this one threatens to shift into something else, Chloe blurts, "So, uh...do you need to pee?"

Max laughs, shaking her head. She lets go of Chloe's hand, but she unfolds, too, wriggling around until she's lying on her side, facing Chloe. "Not right now. I was thinking about something else."

Her eyes are gleaming, all the way alive, and she's so beautiful Chloe can't breathe for a second. She lies down opposite Max, and they're just inches apart, and there's one last threshold between them, and Chloe's afraid of how much she longs to cross it.

Chloe whispers, "What are you thinking about?"

Max says, "Dares."

Chloe's breath hitches. "Oh. I, uh, well...you know, you're pretty daring these days, Max."

She nods, mussing up her soft brown hair against Chloe's pillow, leaving traces of her scent behind. Evidence, however ephemeral, that this Max was here, that this moment didn't just happen in Chloe's mind.

Max says, "Sometimes. What about you?"

Chloe could say that she isn't daring, she's reckless. That it isn't daring when you've got nothing to lose. But now she's faced with a precipice, and it's one that Max, this Max, whose breath tickles Chloe's face, whose eyes are huge and fixed on hers, whose lips are parted and waiting, will sink into in a matter of hours. 

It scares Chloe.

This is everything, and she's going to lose it. Chloe isn't sure how much she can afford to take from these hours that only she will remember. Chloe is afraid of what she might have to give up. Chloe doesn't want to be reckless. Not right now. Not ever again, with Max.

But while Chloe's fear surges in her, Max's eyes never waver. Softly, she says, "Chloe. It's okay. I'll be okay." She sucks in a breath, and it's only now that her voice trembles. "Chloe? I...I dare you to-"

Chloe kisses Max.

For all the time that they have left, there is no more distance between them.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, folks! 
> 
> If you're so inclined to share them, I'd love to hear your thoughts!


End file.
